P.M.: No special concessions for new B.T.L.

And on the game of political football taking place in the field of telecommunications, I asked the P.M. for an update on how the government facilitated sale of B.T.L. to Innovative Communications was going.

Prime Minister Said Musa

“The shares are in transition, yes, somewhere between the Carlisle group and I.C.C. And we are now at that the stage where the due diligence process is almost concluded. There were a few issues to be clarified. I believe those things will be sorted out within two weeks time or so, but I am very confident that we will be able to move ahead with getting the sale concluded with the new company I.C.C.”

Janelle Chanona

“As part of that deal, is government offering I.C.C. any concessions on a large scale or concessions period?”

Prime Minister Said Musa

“None whatsoever, none that doesn’t exist to B.T.L. right now. It’s the same terms and conditions as obtained with B.T.L. at the moment. Of course what they were concerned about is how the competition will work. It’s a new area, Intelco is a relatively new [company] and then Speednet is another one. They wanted to just clear the air and to ensure there’s a level playing field which are not unreasonable concerns, and I believe we’ll be able to sort those out.”

While government and I.C.C. sort out the sale of B.T.L., INTELCO, once the darling of Belmopan, continues to rack up massive losses while it waits for the final word on interconnection rates. As long as INTELCO customers can communicate only with themselves, the INTELCO network is not economically viable. B.T.L., as the dominant local carrier, prefers high interconnection rates, while any newcomer like INTELCO will seek to make full access as cheap as possible.